Friday, February 24, 2012

Part 40 - Rango - The Source of the Societal Discontentment

After giving the Rango series another break for over a month I'd like to visit it again to feature an aspect of how the Bride is presented.

I'm becoming increasingly aware of how the devil knows just enough to carry out his appointed tasks. His reach extends only to the limits set by the Sovereign God. As you (I hope) have noted in the previous 39 posts about Rango, the enemy conceals and reveals his agendas and objectives in plain sight with evil genius. What I'm highlighting here is valuable insight into what's accurately modeled in Rango about an approaching season of the greatest import. I base this judgment upon what the Lord has shown me for many years from the scriptures, where His dramatic modelings have concealed and revealed detail that informs us more fully about what is declared in more superficial ways elsewhere.

So, how is the Bride pictured in Rango? She is the water in the jug in the Bank of Dirt vault, the Hope of Salvation (Part 36) of the town. The Bride is the priceless element of the church whose value is beyond compare. The plot pivots on the theft of that water, the Bride Theft, the barley harvest according to another allegory. Now, the Bride is further characterized as a troublemaker, the “source of the societal discontentment,” an important element I want to feature in this post. Here's the context of that characterization.

Following the “Ash Wednesday” hydration ceremony at the holy spigot, where Beans "spills the beans" on the fact that the bank's water reserve has run dry, the panicked townsfolk make a run on the bank. Rango, in a role as the appointed authority over the church, shows up at the bank. He fires his gun in air to get the unruly mob's attention.

Sheriff Rango:None of that civil disobedience in my town, thank you very much.

The crowd parts and Rango walks on up to the vault.

Sheriff Rango:Alright now. Let me have a gander at the source of the societal discontentment here.

Rango looks up at the water jug, shuddering, overcome with emotion, gasping, “Mercy.”

In that scene we see the metaphor for the Bride of Christ identified as the source of societal discontentment, a troublemaker. Thanks again go to brother Aaron for sharing his observation of the dynamic referenced by that expression. The Bridegroom was viewed as a troublemaker when He walked among men in a body of flesh. He made a whip and overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple court. He accused the appointed religious authorities of the most evil deeds and heritage. Crowds were divided over him, causing civic unrest and raising continual issues the civil authorities were forced to contend with. He was hated by many and charged with committing the most offensive of hate crimes. He said those who truly served Him as their master would also be hated. Types of Christ and of His Bride appear in Genesis 41 with Joseph and his bride, Asenath, whose name means “I shall be hated.” Saul of Tarsus, aka Paul, a servant, was frequently jailed or stoned at the border of towns. What a troublemaker!

The Bride is accurately represented by Rango as “the source of the societal discontentment here.” Folks who make a point of steering wide of trouble won't qualify as the Bride. If that's your aim, repent of it. Far better now than later. We're here to seize the opportunity to make one friend. We have this moment, with no assurance of even one more breath, except as the Lord might explicitly promise to an individual. Those who make Him their friend will be accounted in the company of a very small number.

Few, very few, will make the cut, as Paul rightly declared in the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians in referencing the exodus. Two out of a multitude made it into the promised land. Out of all who had left Egypt, Joshua and Caleb made it. All the others fell in the wilderness.

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

1 Corinthians 10:11

That's it. There's our example. If you really get it, it means just what Paul wrote. It's for you and I. It's a model, for our instruction. If you're using other folks as a gauge of how you're doing, anyone including me, you've been set up for a fall. Look to the Lord. Whatever His standard is for you, there's your standard. It costs you your life, be assured of that, but there's no better deal to be found!

Those who become a genuine friend of the Lord Y'shua will come to manifest His radiant glory while yet in this body. This is why Rango shudders and says, “Mercy,” when he stands in the presence of the water in the bank vault. The testimony of the martyrs has long borne witness. Some among you may give an “Amen” here from personal experience.

Here is a biblical view of what we are shown when Rango shudders and says, “Mercy.”

Who [is] this that is looking forth as morning, Fair as the moon -- clear as the sun, Awe-inspiring as bannered hosts

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